


Sleep is For the Weak

by TheAbsentMindedArchitect



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Architecture school AU, F/F, Kara's still getting over some issues, based on events that actually happened in a school, lena just wants some friends, studio shenanigans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-29
Updated: 2017-10-14
Packaged: 2019-01-06 18:48:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12216777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAbsentMindedArchitect/pseuds/TheAbsentMindedArchitect
Summary: Lena Luthor pretty much has her life planned out. She's going to graduate with a major in architecture and maybe a minor in engineering from Metropolis University, intern at some local firm, move onto grad school at some prestigious architecture school, and then work her way up her family's firm to redeem her family's name within the design world. Pretty simple.Except she forgot to account for the people she'd meet along the way.Or the architecture school AU you never asked for featuring studio shenanigans, sleep deprivation, and unnecessary pick-up lines.





	1. Fleeting Sunsets and Stolen Glances

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternate title: Tired gay Lena sees Kara a la Kara stuffing snacks into her studio desk

_“...lacking a symbiotic relationship and connection with its surroundings.”_

The words have been echoing in her head now for the past couple of hours. Yes, it had been an informal review from her professor, but the words still stuck with her.

Lena sighed, rubbing irritably at her forehead. She wasn't usually one to linger on things that were already done, but this was getting slightly ridiculous. She did a quick once-over on her plot,  double checking for any mistakes on the edits she added after that review, then saved it before filing one copy on a flash drive with the designated name of ‘LL Portfolio’ and the other on her desktop.

The informal reviews for this project were done, which meant that they were going to move into the home stretch of this semester. The professors were most likely going to gather everyone in studio Monday to present and assign their final project. But before that happened, she needed to document everything into her portfolio first. Years of informal interning at the firm meant that so-called good habits were essentially ingrained into her.

Grabbing her camera from her desk and gingerly picking up her concept models, Lena makes her way over to the corner they had set up specifically for her next task. She would have preferred to take the pictures outside with the natural sunlight, but the sun was setting by this time and the tinted sunlight would mess with the details of her models.

Unbidden, her father's words come back to her: _Use two light sources, one for direct light and the other for indirect light. Don't use the zoom feature. Black cloth is for lighter colored models due to the powerful contrast which will draw focus to the model._

It doesn't take too long for her to finish her task. It takes ten minutes at most to finish taking the pictures, double checking the card, then cleaning up the corner. It's only after Lena returns to her desk and puts away her models that she realizes that she's not alone in the studio. There's some kind of shuffling noise that she recognizes that comes from plastic grocery bags in addition to a low murmur as if someone was speaking to someone quietly, which throws her off a bit. Peeking her head over the shelf, she discovers that the sound was coming from Cat Grant's studio across the corridor. There, she sees a familiar figure seemingly putting things into her desk drawer.

_Kara Danvers_. She remembers the first time she saw her and the first thought that came to her mind: _she's beautiful._ Of course her first impression of the other girl was shallow, but there was only so much she could get from a glimpse since she was in a different studio.

Lena had transferred from the program at UC Berkeley during the summer, before this year. The official reason that the press ate up was that she wanted to be closer to her family. In reality, the reason was much more complex.

A new school meant new people. New people that Lena maybe didn't know as well as she should have considering that this would be the class she was graduating with. It wasn't that she was purposefully being antisocial, it was just no one bothered to approach her and as a result she never bothered to do the same. It was never stated outright by anyone, but she knew for a fact it had to do with her family's firm. And possibly the ice queen façade she was _maybe_ encouraging. School was just a stepping stone for her. Once she finished with her undergrad, she would move on and most likely never see any of her peers again.

Shaking herself from her wandering thoughts, Lena runs through her mental checklist to see if there was anything else she needed to do for the day. All she had left to do was to finish off a set of questions from her structural engineering class and to go through a stack of short essays from an Intro to Design class she was TAing for. Her engineering textbook was currently sitting on her kitchen counter and there was a new bottle of Pinot noir waiting for her in the fridge. A quick look at her desktop clock tells her it's six-thirty, which makes the decision for her. If she leaves now, she can be home by seven which then gives her plenty of time to finish the rest of her school work and perhaps swing by the gym.

A louder shuffle causes her to glance back at Kara and of course it was in this exact moment that the setting sun peeked out of the clouds, bathing the studio in a reddish orange light. Lena watches silently as Kara tilted her head upwards and closes her eyes, as if she was soaking up the sun.

_God, she looks so beautiful. I want to get to know her._

She flinches as she fully processes the thought. Where the hell did that come from?

Flustered, Lena quickly packs up her bag, shuts off her desktop, and grabs the stack of essays. She must have been too loud because as she walks to the exit, she notices that Kara's attention is on her. The other girl grins at her, as if she's known her for a while and for some reason, it makes her feel warm inside and she hesitantly returns the smile before turning towards the door.

God, she was so fucked.

\---

"A romantic candlelit dinner is a bit overdone, don't you think? Pick something the both of you would enjoy- like a date at the shooting range or something! What do cops even do in their spare time?" Kara ponders as she swipes her ID through the card reader and pushes into the A School with her spare shoulder, careful not to drop her phone which was currently being pressed to her ear with her other shoulder.

Honestly, she didn't plan to stop by the grocery store at all. She was walking home from her shift at the shelter when she had remembered that her snack stash was running low and decided on a quick stop. Plus, the school was on the way back to her apartment so it worked out in the end. Alex had called her halfway to her destination, freaking out about her upcoming anniversary with Maggie, pressing her for any ideas.

_Alex would forget._ Kara rolls her eyes affectionately. Honestly, she was just so head over heels for Maggie. The first week Kara would get texts from her at three in the morning, gushing how she was just such a _badass_ and _how the hell does she hide all that badassery?? She's so tiny!_

_"We already go to the shooting range each week! She needs to know that hey, this is pretty important to me that we're together."_

"So we're back to a romantic candlelit dinner?" Kara winces as she knocks over a book from Kelly's desk. She double checks to make sure she didn't squish a model before placing the bags on her desk.

_"You know she's not going to let it go afterwards. I just want to do something nice for her, you know? It's been kind of a long week."_ Kara hums as she listens to her sister recount her week and starts putting the packets away. The drawers that came with the studio desks were pretty big by themselves, but the amount of food she bought was going to force her to play some impromptu Tetris.

_"I have to go, my break's up. Promise me you won't stay too late in studio?"_

Kara can't help but smile at this. Alex has always looked after her and she continued to do so even almost 3,000 miles away. "I'm just dropping off some snacks at my desk, I'm heading back to my apartment after this."

_"Get home safe, ok? I love you."_

"I love you too. Bye."

The warmth in her chest lingers after that. She was just so lucky she had so many people who cared. A different warmth hits the side of her face, and she turns towards it, taking up as much of the setting sun as she could. She only had a little over a month left before she was done with her undergrad and there was a kind of sadness that creeps in with this realization, but at the same time there was this blooming sense of satisfaction and pride that accompanies it.

_Almost there._

The sound of footsteps draws Kara out of her thoughts, causing her to glance towards the source. To her surprise, she sees the enigmatic and quiet Lena Luthor sporting dark jeans and a hoodie. The sight almost causes her to do a double take for she's only seen the dark haired girl in sharp blouses and dress shirts. She's taking in the dark hair pulled into a stylish messy bun when her eyes flick up to meet Kara's gaze. There's something about this moment, this fleeting and ephemeral moment in the afterglow of the sun, that's just so _soft_ and _vulnerable_ that it causes her breath to catch in her throat.

Remembering where she was at the moment, Kara snaps herself out of it and smiles at the other girl, who returns it shyly after a moment before making her way to the door.

Smiling to herself, Kara turns back to her desk and grabs her phone.

_Today was a good day._

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Architecture school is a wild ride. A lot of the things that happen in this fic have either happened to me or happened to a friend. Like the whole snacks thing in the studio drawer. I had a box of plastic utensils as well. 
> 
> Also studio desks are usually 4-5 feet wide soooo. Yea. In fact if you want to see what the studio looks like at my school: http://assets.uvamagazine.org/images/uploads/2016/01-Spring/Features/Studio/DSC_6760.jpg


	2. Circumstance or Serendipity?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alternate title: The universe has a shitty sense of humor and this is homophobic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing? Inspiration? I don't know her. Sorry for the delay. 
> 
> Also, Monday's episode of Supergirl singlehandedly saved my life. You think that's a joke, but it really isn't. Also, we got a deeper look into Lena this episode, so I'm going to try to adjust my fic accordingly as we see more and more of her personality. 
> 
> I go to the architecture school at the University of Virginia, and near the A school there's this place we call 'the Corner'. It's full of shops and restaurants that are open almost 24/7 and its close enough that you can slip out between lectures to grab something to eat and I just LOVED this idea so much that I had to include it. There's nothing more refreshing than going for a walk at 1am to clear your mind and grabbing a midnight snack honestly. 
> 
> Also, let's not talk about the Nazis in Charlottesville at the moment :)) I won't be able to walk out of my apartment without fearing for my life :)) (at least the little left I still care about it LOL)
> 
> Also, for the sake of my sanity, I'm placing Metropolis University more towards the outside ring of the city to stop me from constantly looking up shit like "how to write about a city" or "life in the city" because I'm a small town girl who's lived in the suburbs all her life. Go figure. 
> 
> Oh, so 'plot' is used in two ways here. The first one is plot as in a piece of land, the next one is kind of slang we call our basically giant posters we have our plans and sections on. They're called plots because they're printed from plotters, which are these giant printer that are amazing and fickle as fuck. The ones at our school are like 4 feet wide and they can print even more length wise. I may or may not have abused some of these, printing my own posters. Here's a reference: theabsentmindedarchitect.tumblr.com/post/166187511031/long-plots-are-long

Monday comes around soon enough, and Lena is a bit surprised at how ready she is to take on the day. Sunday had become an unscheduled off day for her, meaning she was able to catch up on some sleep- hopefully offsetting at least a tiny bit of the massive sleep debt she managed to accumulate this semester alone. Hopefully. Her morning parametric structural design class goes by rather quickly, as does the discussion for her theory class and then she even had time to step out and head to the Square for lunch.

She receives an e-mail from her professor halfway through her lunch, telling everyone to meet in the lecture hall instead of studio so that they could talk about the upcoming project. At this point it's noon, meaning she still has an hour until she has to be down in the lecture hall.

Twenty minutes later, she's back at her desk in studio and entering her credentials into the Luthor & Associates server. Officially, she's not supposed to have any access to the server considering how she's technically not a part of the firm, however being the daughter and sister of former principals of the group meant that she had a bit of leeway. However, the extent of her participation with said group only extended to getting details and drawings of their past projects.

That being said, it has been repeatedly drilled into her mind by her father that if she were to be a part of the firm, it would be as a result of her own merit and skills instead of being another classic case of nepotism.

The next thirty-five minutes or so are spent poking through the schematics of a building that the firm had designed in Central City a couple of years ago in addition to doing some light research on a new technology involving integrating transparent solar cells with glass resulting in a possibility of having clean energy being produced simply by having said glass used in windows of buildings. By 12:55, Lena's walking down the stairs towards the lecture hall and heading down to her usual seat in the front. A couple of her peers are already scattered around the hall either eating lunch or talking about their weekend. Glancing to the front, she manages to make eye contact with Professor J'onzz, who gives her a nod at which she returns with a small smile.

She was lucky this time around- her past professors had treated her differently due to her last name, be it things such as showing her favor or letting their bias cloud their judgment about her. When she had heard that J'onn J'onzz, prominent and respected architect in the community, was to be her studio professor, she had thought that it was going to be the same situation- perhaps even worse this time around.

He was stern, but fair in his criticisms and critiques and while he had more experience in the field than his students, he never treated any of them with contempt and was never patronizing. He had taken the time to learn about their strengths and weaknesses and wasn't above spending time with them outside of class to help them on whatever they needed.

There was just also something about his calm demeanor that eased her anxieties the slightest bit which threw her off at first, but she had learned to accept it.

A quick glance up tells Lena that they're about to start lecture, so she pulls out her sketchbook from her bag, ready to jot down information. Turning to a new page, she makes a mental note to order a new Moleskine as she's on the last couple of pages on her current one.

"Hey guys, we're gonna get started here." Chase speaks up, grabbing everyone's attention, "The four of us sat down this morning and talked about your presentations back on Friday and I'm happy to say that we’re pleased with how much progress you guys made. As a whole, you guys are doing a good job with the technical drawings, your linework is clean and clear and the renderings are well done." she pauses for a moment before continuing  "Some of the concept drawings that we saw wouldn’t be clear to those who are not in our field, however. There's also the issue of some of the plots having…iffy color schemes. Neon pink is not an appropriate accent to have on a plot, please keep that in mind."

"Pink is for your questionable Instagram and tumble pages, so please keep that in mind. Nothing screams millennial like desperately bright colored presentations." Lena turns and sees Professor Grant strolling down the side aisle as if she owned the place and wasn't late.

"It's tumblr," she hears someone murmur behind her "she even has one where she does nothing but bitch about Zaha Hadid and how stupid Gehry's designs look."

That comment combined with the utterly unimpressed look on Cameron's face does it for her and she has to hold back the snort that was threatening to break.

Chase looks like she's about to give Cat some choice words when Vasquez cuts her off and takes over "For this project, we basically want you to do something with the land we give you. Currently in Metropolis, there are forty-two plots of land that are being underutilized or not being used at all." She flicks through a couple of pictures that were being projected behind her: most of them either empty plots, abandoned buildings, or desolate parking lots. "We looked through a majority of them and picked out four that we think had the best potential for change. The first plot is on the corner of 9th Street and Graham Avenue, which is near the Metropolis City Library. The second is along Frost Avenue and 2nd Street, and the third one is on the corner of Roth Avenue and 15th near the Memorial Fountain. The last one's along 22nd and Kane Avenue near that questionable roundabout." The last bit was mumbled, but Lena was able to catch it due to being in the front.

She jots down the information while mentally plotting the approximate location of each plot. They weren't too far from one another and if she remembers correctly, one of the plots was an apartment building that was abandoned due to a couple of incidents and was slated to be demolished with the land turned into a community garden.

She also remembers being there when her brother rejected the potential idea, opting for one a little farther from home.

When J'onn speaks up next, there's a hint of pride coloring his voice "This time around, your projects will be on display in the Thorul Community Center on 17th, which will be open for public viewing. We submitted a couple of your past plots to the city's planning office and they were impressed with your work and as a result want to see the ideas that you come up with. The city has been making efforts to include the public's voice when developing community spaces and we're hoping that this can bridge the two parties in addition to getting you guys involved."

"We looked through the anonymous response box we set up back in the fall and there was a lot of anxiety expressed since graduation is coming up. There were more questions than usual asking what could be expected when you guys applied to the entry level positions or what additional skills would be needed when actually working, so we discussed it and probably the biggest concern was collaboration skills. Probably because of the unusual amount of big egos that we have this year." Cameron smirks as she trails off.

Lena's uneasiness at her words don't truly set in until she sees the professor's semi-smug look. _No…They're not going to-_

"So this time around, you'll have a partner for this project."

_Goddamnit._

"My studio will be collaborating with Susan's studio while J'onn will be with Cat's. Oh, you'll be assigned a partner too _._ " _She's enjoying this way too much._

Thankfully, Vasquez steps in to salvage the situation. "What Professor Chase _means_ to say is that your respective professors got together to decide on who is paired together. What I've learned is that you tend to learn just as much from one another as you would from us since we're not always around in studio to help. So what we did is we paired you guys based on your individual strengths and weaknesses. We'll go over in details when we split and meet back in studio in a bit."

"Don't bother showing up to studio on Wednesday, we're not going to be there." Cat drawls from her seat at the front "Use that time to go to the sites and sketch, take pictures, I don't know- measure the sidewalk or something. Whatever Snapper taught you in 2020." There's a hint of disdain as her mouth curls around the name. "Proposals for the project are due Monday during studio time. Questions?"

The instructors take a couple of minutes to answer some questions, then they are dismissed to meet back in studio after five minutes. Lena's mind is in overdrive the whole way back to her desk- one part of it is listing off the preliminary research that needs to be done: quick screenshots from Google Earth of the sites, surrounding buildings around said sites, getting access to the GIS for Metropolis, finding a topography file for the city-

_Goddamnit, they had to partner us up._ She could only hope that there was an odd number of students and that she could ask to work alone.

\---

There's an even number of students in the combined studio.

A small wave of irritation flares through her when she realizes this from where she's standing at the back of the group that's gathered around the common table where J'onn and Cat are setting up to brief them on the rest of the project.

It's fine, she can get through this. Split the work, set rules and boundaries, stand by said rules and boundaries. She's worked on partner projects before and while they didn't end ideally and more often than not had her doing most of the work, she got through it. To be fair, she put the extra work on herself when she insisted on redoing drawings after she found flaws on them.

She can deal with this.

Lena listens to J'onn and Cat discuss the details and deliverables that they're looking for towards the end of the project (subject to change of course) in addition to things they're looking for. She's not too concerned about the research phase as this was her city and she was pretty familiar with it- which reminds her that she probably has a CAD file of the city somewhere on one of her flash drives. Her and her partner would visit the sites Wednesday, then they would have until Monday to come up with a solid idea of what they wanted to build. She had already jotted down some tentative ideas: a mixed-use building, an art gallery, a community garden, apartments, a rehabilitation center. Currently, she didn't favor any ideas over another- she couldn't without information about what was already existing around the sites.

The slightest sense of apprehension that had started in the lecture hall comes creeping back in the edges of her mind as she waits for her turn to get a glimpse of the sheet Cat had put on the common table. She _really_ didn't want to work with anyone on this project. Partnerships often meant miscommunication and just a bunch of extra effort and with the amount of miscommunication and plain lack of communication that had been going on lately, she was just so _damn_ tired of it.

"Hi? Lena?" Startled, Lena whirls around to see a certain Kara Danvers standing behind her, hand outstretched as if about to tap on her shoulder to get her attention.

It takes her a split second to regain her composure and she _really_ hopes that Kara didn't see her jump a bit. "Yes?"

The other girl smiles and starts to give her a wave before she corrects herself and sticks out her hand between them. "Uhm, I'm Kara and we're partners for the rest of this semester?"

Lena blinks once, maybe even twice, before she glances over to the sheet on the table and she hopes she's up to date on the prescription on her contacts because if this-

_Group 3:_

_Kara Danvers and Lena Luthor_

_Goddamnit._

\---

Kara's pretty sure that there's a word for being excited and ecstatic simultaneously, but she honestly can't think of it right now because she's already running through possible ideas. Admittedly, her first thought was to build a restaurant but Cat would shoot that down before she could even finish the sentence, so that idea was kind of out of the picture. Her next ideas were fortunately more viable: maybe some kind of shelter? She would have to look up the current existing shelters in the city along with the homeless population for that though. A therapy center would be great too, but they would be most convenient near hospitals or clinics.

"Last semester, we took a couple of weeks to research an area before we actually started developing it and we want for you to keep that in mind as you're choosing your sites. This time around, we figured that you would be familiar enough with Metropolis and could actually walk to the sites which would cut down the research time. Remember to take into account pedestrian traffic along with surrounding context in addition to what YOU think the community would benefit having that these sites. Do you have anything to add, Cat?" J'onn turns to her professor who currently had her own laptop out, typing up something.

Cat glances up, as if looking for someone and makes eye contact directly at her. "No dog parks or zip lines." she says in a tone so dry that Kara swears she feels the moisture in the air evaporate a bit.

She looks away, pretending to study a model that was on someone's desk. She didn’t even go through completely with the idea!

Her professor continues on as if she hadn't just specifically called her out "Deliverables will be similar to last semesters, but they haven't been finalized yet. An email will be sent out closer to the deadline with the final list, but for now assume the basics: site plans, site sections, renderings and collages, axonometric views of the site and construction, and interior perspectives and renderings. This is your fourth year, you should know the drill by now." She pulls out a sheet of paper and places it in the middle of the common table. "Questions? No? Chop, chop."

Kara's pretty close to the front of the common table, so she doesn't have to wait too long for her turn to look at it. She had totally forgot about the whole partner thing and finds herself hoping that she doesn't get partnered with Maxwell Lord again. First year was bad enough, she didn't think she could handle him a second time. Finally, she manages to read the sheet and hoo boy.

_Group 3:_

_Kara Danvers and Lena Luthor_

Okay, she could work with this. Her earlier excitement returns because Lena had transferred here last semester and Kara actually hadn't had the chance to talk to her. It totally wasn't because Kara was slightly intimated by just how _gorgeous_ the other girl was. Nope.

Okay, maybe that was part of the reason.

It was just that she had looked so apprehensive when she was talking to others and Kara got that because she knew what it was like to be new and not know anyone in a new place. In the end, her reluctance to make the other girl uncomfortable outweighed her eagerness to get to know her.

Kara scans the faces behind her until she sees Lena peering down at her sketchbook as if deep in thought. The other girl doesn't seem to notice her approaching so she finally speaks up to get her attention. "Hi? Lena?"

The other girl startles before turning to her. Crap, she didn’t mean to do that. "Yes?"

"Uhm, I'm Kara and we're partners for the rest of this semester?"

Lena hesitates, glancing at the common table as if she was unsure and needed confirmation. She turns back, giving Kara a tentative smile before reaching out to shake her hand. "Lena. It's nice to meet you."

Kara couldn't help but return the smile. This was turning out way better than expected. "Same! So, shall we get started?"

"We can move over to my desk if you want?" Kara nods and follows Lena to her desk. She's not too surprised to see how neat the other girl's desk is. Her hutch was tall enough to accommodate the rather large computer monitor that dominated the desk, but there was still enough room to draw or assemble models on the cutting mat. There was an electric kettle sitting on one of the shelves next to a "Kiss me, I'm Irish" mug which was for one thing adorable and also explained how Lena could stay large amounts of time in the A school. Come to think of it, it was kind of smart but Kara needed the walk to clear her mind whenever she needed her coffee fix. To top it all off, Lena even had a little cactus plant on top of her hutch.

"I like your cactus! I actually had a plant that someone got me during this fundraiser the school had. It was actually on Valentine's Day, but instead of candy grams you could send someone a plant?" Kara's brow furrows as she tries to remember what happened to it. "Oh, I think it died because I kept pouring my brush water into it whenever I painted."

Did she say something wrong? Lena stares at her with an unreadable expression for a couple of long moments before her eyes soften the tiniest bit in tandem with a smile that was pulling at her lips. "I'm not too good at keeping plants alive," she admits "but I saw this while I was out shopping and I bought it on an impulse. It's a bit hard to kill a cactus." She bends down to boot up her desktop and Kara realizes that she has an actual PC at her desk rather than just a monitor that she used as a second screen. "So, I figured that we could start with just looking at the context of the sites?"

"Sure! Let me just go grab my laptop." By the time Kara returns, Lena had pulled a second stool next to her and was in the process of looking through folders. "Sorry if it's cramped, I don't think Jess would appreciate it if you took her desk." She raises an eyebrow when she sees what she has in her hands. "I didn't peg you as a Mac person."

"Oh, uhm." Kara adjusts her glasses- it was more of a nervous habit at this point than her actually needing to fix her glasses "It was actually a part of my scholarship. I usually use Boot Camp on it because I'm just not used to OS."

"It's actually the opposite for me. I grew up on Macs, but switched when I started learning Rhino 5. The OS version is really buggy and tends to close randomly without saving."

The next three hours or so are spent researching the city and the areas surrounding each site with the two agreeing on going their own directions and sharing what they had found later.

Kara was sad to find that the homeless population was around eight thousand people, which is relatively low for a city as big Metropolis, but still unacceptable in her eyes as it was estimated that there were at least nine-hundred people spending each night on the streets. There were a total of six official shelters spread throughout the city and all of them were simply overnight shelters. None of the shelters were near any of the four sites, so she was leaning towards a shelter and some kind of affordable housing combination for their project.

Lena on the other hand had found that site four was relatively close to the Metropolis Children's Hospital, where she had used to volunteer back before she left for Berkeley. She had explained that a lot of the patients' parents were concerned about a lack of rehabilitation and therapy centers in Metropolis as she knew a couple of them had to relocate to another city that had centers equipped to deal with their situations.

The two girls had worked in a companionable silence, occasionally speaking up to talk about an interesting thing they found or to bounce off an idea against the other. It was during this time that Kara had realized that she might have read Lena wrong. There was a kind of confidence about her, definitely not arrogance thank goodness, but it came off as if it was something she had to remind herself to do. There were moments where she would slouch the slightest and then straighten her back as if remembering to not do so.

"I started a folder on the server for us so we can save all of our files." Lena speaks up after a bit, standing up to grab what looked like a stack of papers from the top of her hutch.

"Oh, uh" A glance at her laptop tells her it's almost four which meant that studio was almost over "If it's okay with you, I'll probably save any interesting case studies there too, so we can keep everything in one place? I know we haven’t decided on what we're going to do, but I like to save pictures to look at when I'm in need of inspiration.." she trails off, uncertain.

"That sounds great. I actually have a list where I keep references myself. I can add that as well." Lena offers before glancing at her phone "I would love to stay and continue to work, but I'm a TA and the discussion starts in fifteen minutes."

"No, no that's ok! Do you have a class before studio on Wednesday? I figured we could go to visit the sites early and maybe grab lunch." her eyes widen as she realizes what she had said "I mean, only if you wanted to get lunch with me, you don't have to!" she rushes out.

She must have done something right because Lena's giving her a real smile, one that makes her the edges of her eyes crinkle and _oh geez_ this is the first time Kara's gotten a real look at her eyes and _holy crap_. They were this shade of green with the slightest tint of grey that reminded her of the jades emperors and empresses wore for thousands of years in China and there was this slightest shade of hazel that formed a ring around the pupils an-

"Lunch would be great. I have a class that ends at ten, but we could meet after that?"

It takes a moment for Kara to recover. Honestly, a moment too long but, _holy crap._ "Y-yea." she takes out her phone, fumbling with it for a minute trying to unlock it "Can I grab your number- for the project that is!"

"Only if I can get yours."

She enters in her info, and hands back Lena's phone, the other girl shooting her an amused look when she sees the plant emoji Kara had added after her name.

"I'll see you around, Kara." she says, giving her a smile before disappearing around the corner.

"See you." Kara replies lamely, before sitting back down a bit too heavily on the stool.

_Oh, crap._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Squints. Is that Cameron Chase and Susan Vasquez? 
> 
> Oh right, so the fourth years had the same professors for the fall semester and now the spring semester. Also, for some reason I kept expecting my professors to be old fucks but guess my surprise when some of them are in their mid-30s. Go figure. 
> 
> Researching an area is a fucking bitch. Usually we spend a good 3 weeks researching an area before diving into a project, but for the sake of moving the story along I made it so it was acceptable to take less than a week. 
> 
> Someone I knew second year did a project that involved zip lines… it didn't go so well.
> 
> So when it comes to deciding on what we want to build and stuff, we're taught and super encouraged (required) to go beyond that. Like what kind of innovative ideas and programs could we integrate into this physical place that would make it efficient? Like one year, I repurposed this building and parking lot which was next to a brewery and included affordable housing so like if you worked at the brewery, you literally had your home next door. Admittedly, it was one of my more plain ideas, but there's also things like integrating community gardens onto the top of apartment buildings which the residents could use to grow their own food. Honestly, I think this was the part that surprised me the most: just how integrated and in tune you had to be with the rest of the fabric of the city or town. (wow I sound like a fucking dweeb)
> 
> I might have spent maybe twenty minutes staring at Katie McGrath's eyes. LOOK WHAT I DO FOR YOU GUYS. 
> 
> Fun fact: I had a professor that hated me and I hated her and I recalled her saying something along the lines of never use pink as an accent. Guess what petty piece of shit me did? To be fair I picked a more subtle magenta and my plot looked great. Did I mention it was the plot for our final project for the semester?

**Author's Note:**

> Want to come scream at me and tell me how bad my writing is? Here's my tumblr: theabsentmindedarchitect.tumblr.com
> 
> Anything pertaining to my fic can be found here: : theabsentmindedarchitect.tumblr.com/tagged/sleep-is-for-the-weak


End file.
